Gov. Steve Sisolak speaks at a job fair at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021 | 4:12 p.m.
Though it wasn’t yet 10 a.m. at today’s JobFest at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Brian Brusa was encouraged.
An executive with Maverick Aviation Group, the company behind the popular helicopter tours of the same name, Brusa — like so many other employers around Las Vegas and across the United States — was on the hunt for employees.
It has been a job-seeker’s labor market lately in Las Vegas as the city continues its recovery from the economic devastation brought on by the pandemic.
Along with Maverick, about 180 other employers had tables set up inside the massive North Hall of the convention center complex.
Brusa said it has been difficult to hire quality people. But the job fair provided a couple of promising leads, he said.
“We’ve been struggling with it,” Brusa said. “We’ve had people schedule interviews, then they don’t even show up. It’s been a struggle for almost any position we’re hiring for. There are opportunities out there, but people don’t seem to want to take those opportunities.”
Maverick has over 200 employees, though it had about 300 before the pandemic.
Business for the helicopter tour service has been strong lately, aided by the recent return of international flights to Las Vegas, Brusa said.
At a job fair over the summer, Maverick found three employees who are still with the company, Brusa said.
That meant it was a no-brainer for Maverick to have a presence at today’s event, which was organized by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s Office of Economic Development and the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
Brusa said Maverick is hiring for positions ranging from call center workers to a helicopter pilot, and most everything in between.
“If we could get three to five quality people from this, that would be a great help,” Brusa said. “We definitely saw a spike in our business when international travel reopened last month. We anticipate being very busy from Christmas week to New Year’s. It’s a positive sign, we just need more people.”
Before the job fair opened, the state’s Democratic governor billed the event as the largest job fair in Nevada history.
Sisolak said he expected several thousand walkups, along with close to 2,500 registered job-seekers. He said the employers on hand had 16,000 job openings.
“We have opportunities for Nevadans,” Sisolak said. “Nevada has been hard hit with back-to-back recessions, which happened for very different reasons. First it was the housing market, now leisure and business travel. But we continue to grow and diversify, and my administration is focused on this recovery and getting all Nevadans back to work.”
According to the latest figure from DETR, Nevada’s unemployment rate is about 7.3%. The latest report from the Department of Labor showed the national unemployment rate at 4.2%.
The casino industry was well represented at the job fair. Employers like Caesars Entertainment, the Cosmopolitan, Resorts World and Circa, among others, were there, as were brands like Amazon, Starbucks and the Fremont Street Experience.
Vicki Gasca, a human resources professional with TLC Casino Enterprises, the company that owns Binion’s in downtown Las Vegas, said the company wants to reopen the Top of Binion’s Steakhouse but can’t because it hasn’t been able to staff it.
“Everybody’s hiring now, so there’s a lot of competition,” Gasca said. “We’re bringing people in, but a lot of them end up ghosting us. Some people last a couple of shifts, then leave. Turnover has been atrocious.”
Gasca said she has been hiring new people every week, but many don’t stick around.
She suspects job-seekers are leaping from job to job, depending on what offer they deem most attractive.
“There are a whole lot more work-from-home jobs and people seem to be opting more for those,” Gasca said. “With COVID-19 and the way things have gone, views on family and staying home have changed. People are looking for these new ways of being employed, and I actually don’t have any remote positions to hire for.”
One such person at JobFest was Lauryn Dixon of Las Vegas, a warehouse employee who was searching for a job where she could work from home.
Dixon said she’d like to go to cosmetology school, though it wouldn’t be likely she could go to school and keep her warehouse gig. If she had a remote job, she could make that work, she said.
“A lot of things have changed lately, and I know there are more remote opportunities out there now,” Dixon said as she walked between tables.
Though much remains uncertain with the coronavirus, Brusa predicted a busy year for Maverick and its helicopter tour service in 2022.
Two air carriers — Copa Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines — announced this week the addition of fresh international flights to Las Vegas.
“With the borders opening, we hope people just keep coming here and coming here,” Brusa said. “We’ll be ready to fly them to the Grand Canyon and over the city. We just have to keep persevering and finding people.”
